I haven’t priced out a Dell server in awhile and the windows server licensing has changed somewhat. It appears that there may be a 16 core allocation per socket for the Windows Server 2022 standard edition. if that is the case I’d lean towards a single 16c processor simply because at the pair of 10c/20t you’re licensing 32 cores of MS server but only using 20 of them. the upcharge to the silver 16c/32t is only ~ $144.
moving onto memory. “only 64 GB of non-ECC memory”. I’d spec 64 GB into a new laptop build at minimum. Ideally you’d look into how many memory controller channels on the mainboard are available and how to populate them effectively. Too few modules can reduce the effective memory bandwidth.
The silver CPUs seem to only support 2666 MHz memory speeds. You’ve giving up the punch of the 3200 MHz memory by using a pair of processors that only support 2666 MHz. That’s a 20% boost in memory bandwidth.
Intel® Xeon® Gold 6326 2.9G, 16C/32T, 11.2GT/s, 24M Cache, Turbo, HT (185W) DDR4-3200
1 socket, 16 cores, 3200 MHz memory speed support for an upcharge of $1302.
Use the MS server cores that you license, have the faster memory speed, use less power than if both processor sockets were populated (but seeing as its rated for 185W and the other pair at 240W total that isn’t that much of a reduction).
Right. Hyper-V plus 2 guests: a terminal server and a domain controller. skip the 2nd CPU. drop the 2nd Windows Server 2022 license and make certain that all of the memory controller channels for the single processor are populated. You’re saving a grand in license fees by skipping the 2nd processor.
Downsides of a single processor: fewer PCIe lanes, fewer memory controller channels.
If you have lots of PCIe slots populated you might be cramped by only having a single processor socket populated. This is a problem for the Dell Tech to solve. You’re ordering a new custom built system. you’re paying for their expertise over a white box.
So while you say that its just going to run Hyper-V and a pair of guests, just like a gas the workload expands to fill the available capacity. Next thing you know you’ll be hosting files on this (too many open bays) and whoa do file servers like to have memory available. Why get the 16 x 2.5" bay model if you’re just going to leave the bays empty?
Having the response provided by the terminal server as “snappy” will be appreciated by its users.
I’m in favor of the faster processor speed, faster memory bandwith and only populating a single socket.